S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Grease Gallery

"Robot in Grease!"

Kazumi Sawatari, was a humble farmer once. But the 3 sided war to unite or conquer Japan would change his destiny. At one time a foil to Sento Kiryu and his friends, Kazumi would come to find his greatest allies in this cobbled together cafe' crew. As Kamen Rider Grease, Kazumi would help defend Japan from the threats of industrialist Juzaburo Nanba, cybernetic aide turned insane rider Utsumi Nariaki, and the alien evil of Evolt. Driver in hand, Kazumi sacrificed everything to be a hero and stand up for those he lost, and those he loved. It's no wonder that the first collector figure of his rider form is already selling for huge markups now. Today's gallery will be a focus on S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Grease!

Packaging
As with previous Build releases, Grease has a bit of a two-tone package, themed on the "best match" aspect of the series. With Grease of course he only uses a Sclash Jelly to transform, so the two tones used are gold and brown. Not a lot of gradation between the two. So the box looks a bit boring, but does have some great stock photos adorning it.

Main Figure
Grease shares much of his body's basic tooling with the previously released Cross-Z Charge. While there are undeniable cosmetic differences, particularly in the upper body, if you've handled Charge. You can expect much of the same from Grease.

The striking color scheme is what I'd like to touch on first. Grease is almost fully painted in a really gorgeous metallic gold. The only notable exceptions being the shins, abdomen and some of the hips, and of course the translucent parts. The finish on this is really excellent, I've only noticed a few iffy spots where the application is either over sprayed or a little under applied. The legs are accented by some silver applications on the feet, and some very sharp white techy detailing on the thighs. In fact this is all identical paint application and placement to Charge. The legs still feel like they have a much greater range of movement than the standard Build/Cross-Z or Night Rogue/Stalk molds. I do wish the ankles had a little more clearance, but the overall performance of the legs is nice.

The waist features a brand new driver as well, the [B]Sclash Driver.[B] I always really dug this driver even if it was ultimately underused and completely replaced. Originally billed as the "big upgrade" near the middle of the series, and certainly used to great effect by Grease, Rogue, & Cross-Z Charge, it has been outclassed. To the point that by the series finale, only Rogue was still using it and even now, he's about to get a Build Driver based upgrade "Prime Rogue" in an upcoming DVD/V-Cinema. That's all beside the point. This driver works very well at this scale. The Wrench handle can move up and down and the included Robot Sclash Jelly can be removed as well as inserted into the Twin Breaker weapon.

The upper body has an elaborate translucent black robot/mechanical design stretched across it that I really dig. The sculpt for this part is very well defined and the black plastic just the right opacity. The arms are pretty much standard, though the elbows aren't hindered in the same way as Charge. They do look quite nice thanks to that gold paint application and the white tamphographed details on the biceps. The shoulder pads have fantastic airbrushed style Robot art that would look very much at home on the side of a van I would love to drive. And these are on brand shoulders, totally different from Charge's. The pads on the shoulders can fully rotate to recreate Grease's rider kick. The forearms have been similarly remolded, though these parts make resting the Twin Breaker against the arm even more difficult than on Charge.

Finally, the head, which is made with the same clear plastic as the chest. I really love how well the effect turned out on Charge, and the opacity of the helmet here is just spot on as well. The faceplate is sharp and well defined, while the features underneath it shine through in almost any lighting. There are very minor gray paint details on the face that draw out just a bit more detail as well. As with Charge, I really feel like they nailed it on this one. Overall this is another really great figure that while absolutely not perfect, is absolutely something of a must own for fans.

Accessories
Kazumi comes with everything he could really need:

4.5 - sets of hands. 1 left hand specifically meant for holding the Twin Breaker, 1 of each for holding Full Bottles, bike handlebars etc, and one pair of open palms for action poses.

1 - Twin Breaker. A straight repack of the one that came with Cross-Z Charge. This dual mode weapon always looked a bit clumsy to me in the show, but I like it for the most part here. The hand meant to grip it, holds it an angle but that can help navigate around the forearm a bit. I wish it could rest flush against the arm but that wouldn't be entirely accurate. The twin breaker comes packaged in Beam Mode with the gun barrels pointed forward. You can easily transition it to Attack Mode by rotating them back and extending the golden spear point in the middle. This locks nice and snugly in place, just be careful not to scratch it. It can accommodate two Full Bottles are Sclash Jellies as needed.

1 - Robot Full Bottle. Mine is molded a little crooked so it can't stand straight up but the real point of it is to interact with the Sclash Driver, Twin Breaker, or any other Full Bottle compatible device.

1 - Phoenix Full Bottle. Molded better than my Robot one, you can see the above for it's uses. Just be careful when trying to exchange any of these items. They are tiny and easy to lose and quite easy to scratch as well.

I'm almost a little surprised that Grease doesn't included two Twin Breakers for the Double mode he gets when using the Dragon Sclash Jelly. Another item which could have been easily repacked here. But that's not Bandai's MO with this kind of stuff. Were it not cost prohibitive I'd actually pick up another Cross-Z Charge or Grease for these parts. But as is, Grease really comes with just what he needs. I did borrow some Amazons Blood effect parts from SHF Mole Amazon to simulate Greases's well, grease, for this gallery as well. It works pretty well!

Final Thoughts
This is another release from Build that's honestly turned out perfectly. The line has been full of great recreations of these suits so far, with only a few real gripes to speak of. Kamen Rider Grease, much like Rogue, became an integral and insanely popular character in the series as it progressed. So it's no wonder that this figure is selling for 10,000+ yen at this point. It's a fantastic representation of one of the most emotionally powerful characters the show had to offer during it's run. S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Grease is another excellent addition to this toyline.

Part 2

The fact you can rotate the shoulders tells me this is a good Figuarts lol

Pictures look fantastic!

I like the gallery! I particularly enjoyed your inclusion of the other Rider forms for Takeda Kouhei. Also, I don't say this often enough: one of the things I love about TokuNation in particular is that you do actual reviews. I'm a little surprised there aren't more shots of the FullBottle-holding hands. Are they only for the Sclash Jellies, or can they hold the standard FullBottles? I'm excited any time these days when Figuarts include hands appropriate to all of their accessories.

This figure was almost tempting to me; I'm afraid shelf space is becoming more and more a factor in my purchases. (In retrospect, I can't believe I purchased Kamen Rider Kurokage.) As far as Build goes, I'm going to content myself with Build, Cross-Z, and the villains. This looks like a terrific figure, though; I might've gone in for it if I'd had the space.

Too cool, thanks for posting them

Amazing figure and photoes.

I also really love when Grease are standing together with Ixa and Dark Kiva

This is a really good design and its well executed in SHF form. I really dig it

I think its a stronger source design than Cross-Z dragon, but that turned out to be a good figuart too

Reminds me of Kyoryu Gold

Great stuff!

I wish I could've played around with mine more, but I do have Grease Blizzard on pre-order and I think that one looks even better!

I'll probably get this version over Blizzard, I think this form looks better overall.